Home: Murder By Earthlight -- 3/?
by Nan Smith
Previously:
Joanna snorted. "Steffy's a cat. I guess we'll see you tomorrow, then."
But once outside the room, Clark headed directly for the main desk. "John apparently sent the message priority."
"Priority?" Lori raised her eyebrows. "Must be urgent."
"That's what I figure." Clark led the way into the main lobby. A moment later, they were headed toward the elevator, a sealed message pouch in Clark's pocket.
**********
And now, Part 3:
The elevator slid to a stop as they approached and just as they stepped onto the platform a voice behind them called, "Hold the elevator!"
Lori glanced around as she boarded and saw a tall, thin individual attempting to hurry across the lobby floor toward them. Courteously, Clark waited until he managed to reach them and, belatedly, Lori recognized him as the tourist that she had seen entering the hotel when she and Clark had returned from their tour of the city. He smiled perfunctorily at her. "Thank you."
"No problem," Clark said. "Which floor?"
"Fifth," the man said. He glanced casually at Lori again and this time he seemed to study her face. "Forgive me," he said, "but you look familiar. Do I know you?"
"I don't think so," Lori said.
"I've seen your face, I'm sure."
"We met when you arrived," Lori explained. "We were on the elevator with you."
"I suppose so," he said slowly, "but you look very familiar. Wait --" He glanced at Clark and then returned his gaze to Lori. "I do recognize you. You're that writer for the Daily Planet -- Lori Lyons. I've seen your picture. You were the reporter that was kidnapped by that insane cult last year. The one that set off the bomb in Metropolis."
"Oh," Lori said, as the elevator started downwards. "Yes, I was." She extended a hand. "Pleased to meet you, Mr. --?"
"Johnson," he said, shaking her hand quickly. "Edgar Johnson. I'm an engineer at Genie Electronics in Metropolis."
"It's a small world," Lori said.
"It certainly is," Edgar Johnson agreed. "I suppose you must travel a good deal for your news service?"
"Sometimes," Lori said. "This is my partner, Mr. Kent. We're here for the journalists' conference."
"Ah, I see," he said. "Yes, I noticed the sign in the lobby. Is this conference always held in Luna City?"
"No," Clark said. "It's held in a different place each year. The last one we went to, three years ago, was held in Ciudad del Sol, in Alta Mesa."
The elevator slid gently to a stop on the fifth floor. "I see," Johnson said. "It must be interesting to see such exotic parts of the world. I, fortunately, am simply here for a vacation and a little relaxation."
"Well, Luna City is a good place to relax," Clark said. "They have everything from exotic sports to all kinds of tours and everything in between. Do you plan on visiting any of the night clubs or the casinos in Tycho?"
"I may," Edgar Johnson said. "I'm not much of a gambler, but I understand the low-gravity shows at the clubs are like no others anywhere." He yawned decorously behind one hand. "It was nice meeting you, Ms. Lyons, Mr. Kent." He nodded pleasantly at Lori. "Good night."
"Good night," Lori said. Johnson smiled and stepped off the platform, and a moment later was striding awkwardly away down the hallway to the left, grasping occasionally for the safety rail that ran along the wall.
Clark gave Lori a helping hand and stepped off the platform as well. Lori glanced after Johnson's retreating figure as he rounded a corner and disappeared. "That was interesting."
"Yeah," Clark said. He started toward their room. "Like you said, it's a small world."
"I wonder what John wants," Lori said, dismissing Edgar Johnson from her mind.
"We'll find out in a minute." He let her grab his arm as she took an incautious step and bounced somewhat higher than she had intended. "Careful there."
When they had entered their room and closed the door behind them, Clark withdrew the envelope from his pocket and broke the privacy seal. "Let's see what we have here."
Their editor's message was short and to the point. "Clark and Lori. As soon as you get this message, call my private line."
Lori read the message and looked curiously at her husband. "I wonder what's up. It doesn't seem like that private a message."
"Good question." He turned to the room's vidscreen. "I want to make a direct call to Earth."
The screen lit up with a soft chime. The pleasant female voice of the computer announced, "The line is open, sir."
Clark recited their editor's private number and waited while the computer put the call through. Within seconds, the screen shifted to the image of John Olsen's living room, and John sitting on his sofa.
"Hello, John," Clark said. "What's up?"
John leaned forward. "Thanks for getting back to me so fast. I need you to do something important for me."
"Sure," Clark said. "What is it?"
"I need you to find somebody, if you can," John said. "Computer, display file 14."
A picture appeared in one corner of the screen and Lori found herself looking at the image of the man with whom they had been speaking on the elevator platform only a few minutes before. "He was on Luna Shuttle Flight 361 that arrived at the Luna Shuttleport at 2135 Luna time," John continued. "His name is Edgar Johnson. He's an engineer employed by Genie Electronics, in Marilyn's department. If you can find him, call me as fast as you can, but be very careful not to alarm him. It's important."
Lori and Clark looked at each other. "He's staying at the Luna Hilton. We saw him just a few minutes ago," Clark said. "He was on the elevator we were on when we came back to our room. He recognized Lori from that Gaia's Children thing last year and mentioned that he was on vacation, here. What's up?"
"Well, at least he's there," John said. "Marilyn's department has an investigation going -- possible corporate espionage. They've had a breach in their R and D security."
"Oh oh," Clark said. "What happened?"
"There was a computer audit today -- Marilyn isn't sure why, since it wasn't a scheduled one -- and they detected an unauthorized access to the records of a new, really revolutionary technology that the company is developing. The files were copied and an effort was made to erase the tracks."
"Let me guess. Edgar Johnson."
"Exactly. Of course we don't *know* he was behind it but it was his electronic signature. Someone could have faked the ID but naturally Marilyn's pretty worried, and so are her superiors. Especially since Mr. Johnson informed his bosses very suddenly, three days ago, that he needed to take a short leave of absence to Luna City."
"Yeah, I can see why they're worried. What do you want us to do?"
"You've already done most of it. One of the company's investigators will be there in about six hours. Try to make sure of Johnson's location in the meantime if you can but, for Pete's sake, don't do anything to alarm him. The last thing we need is for him to panic."
"We won't," Clark said.
Some of the tension seemed to leave John's expression. "Thanks. I should have known I could count on you two. As long as he's on the Moon he can't go very far without leaving a trail. If he's really our boy, our people will find out pretty quickly. And, of course, I'll expect a story about whatever happens."
"Of course," Lori said, keeping her face straight with an effort. Emergency or not, John was first and foremost a newsman.
Their boss signed off and Lori and Clark looked at each other.
"What was I saying about a normal, slightly boring convention?" Lori said, sounding resigned even to herself.
"Well, hopefully it'll be straightened out in a few hours and we can go back to being slightly bored," Clark said. "Think you can tie into the hotel's computer network and find out what room Mr. Johnson is in?"
"I guess I could," Lori said. "But why don't you just take a stroll along the hallway he headed for and see if you can see him? It's faster."
"I guess I could, but I don't like to snoop on other people's privacy that way," Clark said.
"Okay." Lori hunted around in the closet where their possessions had been stored and located her laptop. "I'll try. I don't make any promises, though." She cast a sideways look at him. "I was hoping for a slightly different sort of action before we went to sleep, but I guess it'll wait."
"Well," Clark said, "if you can't break into their network in thirty minutes, I guess I could go take a quick scan around the fifth floor."
"That's what I like about you," Lori said innocently. "You always listen to logical arguments."
He gave a half-ashamed grin. "You present them so well," he said.
Lori looked up at him through her lashes. "Well, I was looking forward to this convention -- when I don't have to worry about being interrupted at a delicate moment," she said. She could feel her cheeks warming as she spoke. "You don't have to go snooping around if you don't want to, but it would be nice, just for this evening, if we could -- you know -- have it to ourselves."
He laughed. "And I thought I was the only one who worried about that."
**********
"He's in room 573," Lori reported. "I think Superman should take a quick look to be sure Mr. Johnson is where he belongs -- and maybe what he brought with him."
Clark nodded. "I guess I should take a walk down that way," he agreed. "I doubt I'll be able to see anything -- if he's got copies of whatever the records were, they're probably on a micro-chip or something."
"Probably, but you can at least be sure he hasn't taken off, and see if you can spot where he might have whatever it is. And in the meantime, I can change into something more comfortable," Lori added. "I happened to pack the black lace teddy you brought me from France the last time you were there. I thought this might be a good time to try it out."
"Sounds good to me," Clark said, raising his eyebrows and leering at her in an exaggerated way. "I'll be back in a few minutes." He grinned and left the room, whistling softly to himself. As Lori had said, they had both looked forward to this conference combined with a few days of vacation. It wasn't that Clark didn't love his tiny daughter. Mary Lucille was the delight of his life, as he would have been the first to say. However, the prospect of a few nights alone with his wife, without the worry of a small girl, who had recently taken to climbing out of her crib at night and making her way into her parents' bedroom, appearing at a very awkward moment, would be a nice break. Mary Lucille was undoubtedly having a wonderful visit with Lara. Their daughter was a favorite with her four super-powered siblings, who spoiled her shamelessly, and he and Lori had been able to depart for Luna City with only the slightest of pangs on their part about the short separation.
He reached the hallway that crossed in front of the elevators, turned down the way that Edgar Johnson had gone forty minutes before and rounded the corner toward the man's hotel room.
As he approached, he tuned his super hearing and glanced into the room.
Edgar Johnson was in his pajamas, standing by the wash basin and brushing his teeth with a sonic toothbrush. As was normal on the Moon, the water gushed from the tap in a heavy mist of tiny droplets, drifted toward the basin and swirled slowly down the drain. Everything in the room, as in theirs, was designed for the tourist who was not accustomed to the sometimes-surprising effects of low gravity.
A glance around the room, noting Johnson's possessions, showed him that two business suits hung in the closet. A palm-computer sat on the table beside the double bed, along with a small case of microchips, labeled innocently enough music, videos and apparently financial data. A set of matched synthetic alligator luggage was neatly arranged on the floor below the clothes rack, consisting of a large suitcase, a smaller one and two of the briefcase-sized bags like the one that he had been clutching when they had first seen him entering the hotel. One of the bags was open, disclosing toiletry items. The drawers of the dresser held underclothes, four pairs of socks and two pairs of casual slacks and shirts. The clothing that he had been wearing when they had met him on the elevator lay across the back of a chair and a pair of shoes was set on the floor. Clark paused for a moment and then x-rayed the bags.
The large suitcase was empty, as was the medium-sized one. The small bags were not. Besides the one holding Johnson's toiletries, the second one contained what appeared to be an entire change of clothing, a sonic razor, a manual toothbrush and toothpaste.
As he watched, Johnson finished brushing his teeth, set his toothbrush onto its charger, left the bathroom and went to sit on his bed. Casually, he selected a microchip from the case, inserted it into the palm computer and lay back as soothing music filled the room. Well, that was hardly incriminating, Clark decided. It looked as if Edgar Johnson was settling in for the night. Clark turned and strolled slowly back toward his own room.
As he passed the elevators, one of the platforms slid to a stop. Stephanie Brooke, Mona Grant, Talbot Grey and Pete Swanson, as well as two persons he didn't know, stepped off, accompanied by the unmistakable smell of alcohol and exotic hors d'oeuvres, leaving a number of other persons on the platform to continue on to their own floors.
"Hello, Clark," Stephanie said. She glanced around. "Where's your wife?"
"In our room," Clark said. "I'm on my way back now."
Stephanie paused as her companions dispersed in different directions for their rooms and grasped Clark's arm lightly. "Would you like to stop by for a drink?" she purred. "I'm sure Lori won't mind."
Clark gently disengaged her hand. "I'm sure she would," he said mildly.
Stephanie looked annoyed. "Being married doesn't mean you have to be a saint," she protested. "Do you know, back in Brazil, I began to think you were gay. It wasn't as if I was asking for a commitment then, any more than I am now. Or does your little wife run your life that strictly?" she added, taking his arm again and leaning forward to allow him a close look at her cleavage. "I thought you were more of a man than that."
Clark removed her hand again. "You're a very beautiful woman," he said, quietly, "but Lori and I are in a monogamous, lifetime relationship, and I'm sure she would mind what you're suggesting very much." He stepped back. "And so would I. I'm sorry, Stephanie. Good night."
**********
tbc
